Motorists in Cape Town will soon be able to settle their outstanding fines with smart pay-as-you-go technology, the city officials said on Monday.
The City's mayoral committee member for Safety and Security JP Smith said a SMS service that notified motorists about their traffic fines had been been taken up a notch.
“The City of Cape Town's Traffic Service is adding another technological advancement to its arsenal with the roll-out of smart SMS technology that will allow motorists to pay fines via their cellphones, tablets or personal computers,” said Smith. He said a service provider which has been testing the SMS technology for the past few months and “who is responsible for generating and sending fine notices” was looking at streaming the technology online.
Smith said motorists would be able to click on a link that appears in the SMS they receive and view their fine through putting in their identification number. Motorists, he said, would have “additional options to download or e-mail the fine or even pay it directly from the link”.
Smith said the aim of the technology was “to make life easier for our residents and take the pain out of paying traffic fines”. He noted that the technology would ensure motorists received their fines timeously, without any postal system delays. He added that through this technology, the City would be able to “monitor exactly how many people have received the text message, opened it, and downloaded or paid the fine”.
Smith emphasised that the new smart technology would not “replace the traditional mailing of first notices as these will still be sent via the South African Post Office”.
The website used to enable motorists to view their fines is https://fines.capetown.gov.za/4/test. Smith said the pay-as-you-go service was available on Android, Windows, IOS, Blackbery, Symnbian and Linux and was compatible with desktops and mobile devices.
African News Agency (ANA)